There’s no getting around how underwhelming the announcement of Matt Luke as the Rebels’ new head coach felt for many.
Part of the disappointment came from the big names being thrown around as potential candidates, such as Willie Taggart and Charlie Strong. Also fueling the fire was the belief that officials who had no business getting involved in the decision pushed the move, rather than promoting an outside-the-box approach based more on merit.
The outrage was valid at the time, but lacked context. The NCAA penalties hadn’t yet been announced, but if Ross Bjork had at least a vague idea of what was coming, it wouldn’t have made a ton of sense to pour money into an outside hire just to get the team through sanctions.